Floyd head coach Rafael Roybal watches as his Broncos rout the Magdalena Steers 50-16 Saturday.

FLOYD—If the Floyd Broncos are experiencing a case of deja vu in the 8-man state football playoffs, there’s good reason — the Broncos first two playoff games are against teams they’ve already played in the regular season.

The fourth-seeded Broncos eliminated fifth-seeded Magdalena in the state quarterfinals Saturday afternoon 50-16, their secondwin over the Steers this season. It sets up a rematch against district rival and top-seeded Melrose in the state semifinals next week in Melrose.

Senior Edel Sotelo, starting at quarterback for the suspended Chay Chenault, threw three touchdown passes, caught a score and ran for another as the Broncos built a 28-0 halftime lead, and put the game away early in the third quarter.

Chenault was suspended after getting ejected from the district finale Halloween night at Melrose — a 60-0 Melrose win.

“I was a little nervous. I didn’t want to mess up,” Sotelo said. “(I felt better) after the first couple of plays, actually. I kind of lost that nervousness.”
The Floyd coaches don’t believe the offense missed a beat with Sotelo playing for Chenault.

“He did a real good job,” Floyd assistant coach Adam Terry said. “There’s always a concern (when your starting quarterback is out), but Edel stepped in and ran the offense well.”

Floyd began the scoring with a 10-yard Sotelo pass to junior Chet Chenault, followed by some second-quarter trickery. Sotelo took the snap, handed the ball off to R.J. Berry, who tossed it across the field back to Sotelo for a 40-yard touchdown pass that gave the Broncos a 12-0 advantage.

Floyd got the ball back and Sotelo put the home team up 20-0 after a 9-yard scamper, followed by a 37-yard scoring throw to Chenault, and the Broncos led 28-0.

Hunter Terry and Trice Gray scored early in the third quarter to put the game out of reach at 42-0, but Magdalena scored twice in the final two minutes of the third quarter. A J’Kobie Lee 4-yard touchdown run and a stingy Floyd defense put the brakes on any Steer comeback hope.

“It was good to come out and play a good game after us getting beat pretty bad last week,” Terry said. “We were wondering what the kids were made of and they came out and played hard today and played a good game.”

“The offense was going pretty good even though Chay couldn’t play,” Sotelo said. “It’s a game we had to win.”

Melrose (11-0) defeated Springer 62-0 Friday night and will host the state semifinal game either Friday or Saturday.

“We just have to play hard,” Sotelo said. “(We have to) make up for the mistakes we made last time, put our heads on straight and play ball.”